Boston & Albany Railroad Stations

H. H. Richardson designed five passenger stations for the Boston & Albany Railroad in Newton, but only one, Woodland (NRD), survives. The Boston Metropolitan Transit system demolished the stations at Chestnut Hill, Eliot, Waban, and Auburndale for parking lots. The Woodlawn Golf Club purchased the Woodland Station (1884–1886), now used as a storage shed and visible only from the train or golf club property. Similar to the small structures built for the Eliot and Waban stations, it features steeply pitched hipped roofs, broad and low dormers, granite chimneys, and porte-cochere. These granite buildings are of trabeated construction without the great round arches or porches supported by wood posts with brackets used in the Chestnut Hill and Auburndale stations.

Richardson's successor firm, Shepley, Rutan and Coolidge, designed the Newton Highlands (1886–1887, 18 Station Street, NRD) and Newton Center (1890, 68–72 Union Street, NRD) stations. Granite construction surmounted by a steeply pitched hipped roof with wide overhanging eaves characterizes the firm's station designs, although the massing and detailing are all very straightforward and lack the distinctive treatments that were evidence of Richardson's genius. In 1906 the tracks were lowered to eliminate grade crossings in both communities, which required both buildings to expand with an additional granite story on the track sides. Although converted for commercial use, both stations retain original interior woodwork.